Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments differentiation

I'm going to check out a school tommorrow. The principal has 35 years gifted experience. They are ok with full grade accelloration if needed. They teach with differentiation in the classroom everyday. All teachers have been trained to handle different needs in the class. They have a gifted specialist (not sure of her title) that will come into the school and help teachers to meet the kids needs. There are opportunities like math & science olympiads, chess, spelling bee, and power of the pen.

Please give me some tips on how to see if this is a good fit for a HG kid. Do you think a kid who needs to be 2 grades ahead can get what they need in this situation? What questions do I need to ask about Differentiation? They have not used any online learning classes yet. They said they would be open to dealing with DYS. They do not have a gifted pullout or group.

I have in mind to ask about what math is used? Do they supplement the Math with things like logic? Would they be open to EPGY or other online learning?

I'm going to show a few of DS's school work, his above level work, and testing scores.

How do I know they are not teaching to the test?

The gifted specialist is an consultant hired by the school to come in and help teachers occassionally. I wondering if it would be appropriate to talk to her?

I would be counting my lucky stars if I found a school, truly committed to differentiation. Hope it is.

I would want to hear some specific examples of how they have used differentiated instruction to support gifted learners (there's a good overview in Susan Winebrenner's book about teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom). Will teachers pre-test before starting a unit? Is instruction "compacted" or "telescoped" for students who are already familiar with much of the material of a particular area? Do they offer "menu" options for completing work in different formats to meet the needs of more visual or other kinds of learners? Do they use ability-grouping for some subjects/topics in order to let high-ability kids work together? Are kids working at different grade levels in the same classroom, or are they using enrichment activities that extend or deepen same-grade-level work? Are there appropriate reading materials available for advanced readers?

I would also ask why they prefer to use diffentiated instruction exclusively--their answer might give you some hints about how they view the needs of gifted learners, since many gifted experts aren't convinced that differentiation can meet everyone's needs in all circumstances.

And if they would allow you a classroom observation that could be tremendously helpful in allowing you to see if you can detect ongoing differentiation at work. In one classroom I visited a teacher told me that she differentiated in math instruction by having different kids answer different numbers of questions depending on how much practice they needed--but the students who required very little repetition weren't given any additional work to do other than free reading when they finished. In another class, one student worked from an above-grade-level math textbook but didn't receive any instructional support if he had questions. And in both instances, in classes of nearly thirty kids, I'm not sure how the teacher could have put in place a more robust system of differentiated instruction while also addressing the behaviour challenges and administrative work that continue during instructional time. I worry that differentiation-for-giftedness is asking teachers in very heterogeneous environments to work miracles...but perhaps that's too pessimistic. I'm looking forward to hearing more positive appraisals!

As you can tell, I'm a bit suspicious about claims to meet gifted learners' needs through differentiation. I'd love to hear stories from people who've found it works.

westcoastmom - thanks for such a complete anwser. Those are good questions I could ask. It may be too good to be true. I think they really differentiate but how does it fit for my son is the big question. They recieved a grant to set up the differentiation with a gifted specialist supervising and training the teachers. She is available to help when kids need more challenge. I'm hoping since the principal has 35 years gifted experience he might attract some HG peers for DS. They don't promote the school as being for gifted. They said they have a very challenging curriculum.

I think one thing in question is how much HG experience and how flexible.

I do like the idea of everyone just works at their level so it's not so strange to do something different.

I think this is key. We have heard from other parents on this board that some schools with this view are not very flexible, since they already "have a very challenging curriculum". What they don't necessarily consider is the difference between the needs of the child in the 130 range with that of the 145 range, since so many of their students are already gifted. It falls back to the "mean" mentality.

I showed the potential school principal my son's tests scores. He said that my DS see the world a different way. He's 2% of the population and related to some of his characteristics.

They do pretesting and the kids get to do something else if the get 95%. This seems too high but my son gets lots of 100% papers. I wished I ask which subjects they pretest.

They condense some of the work, especially Math. They supplement the Math with logic and puzzles.

Differentiation is done like this - Same lecture for all but then different work depending on the level of DC. They are willing to advance a student in whole grade or single grade accelloration. The Math teacher can teach to 12 grade hs. They had one student doing independent math on Hs level and the teacher made time to help her. They are currently allowing one student to do an online course in writing.

I asked about peers. He said there are about 4 or 5, 140 to 150 IQ kids. I wonder about this. Have they all been tested? Or does he think this from experience?

They group the higher ability kids or kids can go up a grade if needed. The principal thinks that gifted kids need to be with the other kids rather than isolating them. He said he thinks differentiation works better than a pull out program.

I hope that they are doing true differentiation. Our school district feels that they can accomodate all needs through differentiation and that just doesn't seem to be the case. My DD isn't as high as some of the kids mentioned on these boards and differentiation just didn't cut it for her. You mentioned that this isn't a "gifted" school so that means that there are still ND kids in the classroom of the same age? That greatly affects the level of differentiation. On the other hand if they are willing to allow your DS to move to a higher grade, that might part might be beneficial.

All the students get the same lecture then do different level work. Could the levels be different enough to accommidate everyone including HG kids?